Chương I Thông tư 04/2020/TT-BTP: Những quy định chung

Chapter I

GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1. Scope

This Circular elaborates a number of Articles of the Law on Civil Status and the Government’s Decree No. 123/2015/ND-CP dated November 15, 2015 on guidelines for the Law on Civil Status (hereinafter referred to as “Decree No. 123/2015/ND-CP”) regarding authorization of civil registration; receipt of applications for civil registration and announcement of results thereof; procedures for birth registration, marriage registration, death registration, recognition of parent-child relationship and registration of some other vital events; mobile birth registration, marriage registration and death registration; issuance and guidelines on use and management of civil registers and civil status documents.

Article 2. Authorization of civil registration

1. An applicant for issuance of a copy of a civil status extract, issuance of a marital status certificate or registration of a vital event listed in Article 3 of the Law on Civil Status (hereinafter collectively referred to as “civil registration application”) may authorize another person to carry out such application; excluding marriage registration, marriage re-registration and recognition of parent-child relationship, which may not be authorized  but one party may submit an application to the competent civil registration authority without a written authorization from the other party.

Authorization must be granted in writing and certified as per the law. Such certification is not required if the authorized person is a biological sibling, grandparent, parent, child or spouse of the authorizing person.

2. In case the applicant for registration of the birth of a child is the a grandparent or another relative of the child according to regulations in Clause 1 Article 15 of the Law on Civil Status, the authorization letter from the child’s parent(s) is not required but the child’s parent(s) must agree on the contents of the birth certificate.

Article 3. Receipt of applications for civil registration and announcement of results thereof

1. The recipient of an application shall inspect the whole application; if it is inadequate, instruct the applicant on how to revise it as per regulations.

In case the applicant cannot revise the application immediately, the recipient shall draw up an instructional document specifying the documents/contents needing to be added and put the recipient’s signature and full name to the document.

2. The recipient shall receive civil registration applications that contain only the contents required by laws on civil status and shall not request civil registration applicants to submit documents not required by laws on civil status.

3. Civil registration applicants may submit certified copies or copies issued from the master registers (hereinafter referred to as “copies”) or photocopies together with their authentic copies for comparison. In case an applicant submits a photocopy together with its authentic copy, the application recipient shall inspect and compare the photocopy with its authentic copy and countersign and shall not request the applicant to submit a copy.

For documents presented for civil registration, the recipient shall inspect and compare them with information in the application, photograph or record information for retention purpose and return the documents to the person presenting them, and shall not request copies or photographs of such documents to be submitted.

4. When announcing the civil registration result, the announcer shall instruct the applicant to check the contents of the civil status document and civil register.

When the applicant deems the contents correct and consistent with the application, they shall put their signature and full name to the civil register according to the announcer’s instructions.

5. Both the man and woman must be present upon announcement of the marriage registration or re-registration result; both the parent and child must be present upon announcement of the result of recognition of parent-child relationship.

Article 4. Resolution of civil registration applications without proof

In case a civil registration application requires proof according to regulations in Clause 4 Article 22, Clause 2 Article 26 and Clause 2 Article 27 of Decree No. 123/2015/ND-CP and Clause 4 Article 9 and Clause 1 Article 12 of this Circular, if there is no reply to the request for proof  20 days after the date on which the request is sent, the civil registration authority shall continue to process the application as per regulations. In case proof of marital status is required,  the applicant may submit a written confirmation of their marital status to apply for a marital status certificate  as per regulations in Article 5 of this Circular.

Article 5. Responsibilities and consequences arising from untruthful confirmations

1. If the civil registration applicant is permitted to draw up a written confirmation of the accuracy of the contents in their application, the civil registration authority must explain the responsibilities and consequences arising from untruthful confirmations to the person drawing up the confirmation.

2. The civil registration authority may refuse to process a civil registration application or request the competent authority to annul the result of a civil registration application if there are grounds to confirm that the confirmation is untruthful.